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Chapter 164.2

Suddenly, Edelred turned his head towards the west where the moon was setting. There was a forest there, notorious for witch-hunting during the day, but he was looking far beyond it, at an island touched by the sea breeze.

“There’s an island called Saltain. It’s heavily populated by followers of the Salt Council. When they were expelled from the desert, many travelled long distances to settle there. Apparently, there were even people who lived there before Elil. The former king thought this made a good excuse.”

“…”

“The Count of Saltain, although hosting many followers of the Salt Council, was a loyal devotee of Elil. He was appalled when the order for a ‘heretic purge’ came, and he desperately defended them.”

These were tax-paying citizens who supported most of the island’s economy. Even Elil’s mainland benefitted from the seafood and goods they provided. It was foolish to expel them. Moreover, persecuting such minorities under the guise of heresy was sinful…

“Of course, the former king wouldn’t listen. He viewed the Count’s defense as ‘treason’ and ordered Vio Georg to carry out the purge. Things might not have reached such a dire state had Vio ignored the order. But Vio was a knight. And the head of the Aldeon family was a knight-king.”

Edelred gritted his teeth as he continued,

“And Vio Georg executed his duties exceedingly well. Saltain burned, over 500 ships were destroyed, and hundreds of its citizens were slaughtered, even those who were not followers but merely tried to protect or hide them. But the hell didn’t end there.”

“What do you mean it didn’t end?”

“The Count of Saltain surrendered too late. The former king then banned boat building and imposed a blockade on Saltain, which Vio Georg enforced. Saltain might have vast territories, but most of its land is rocky and barren due to the saline winds. And now, fishing was also banned.”

Edelred murmured ominously,

“A purge? No, the massacre began only then.”

During the three-year blockade, at least tens of thousands of residents died from starvation or indirectly related causes. This horrific news remained unknown to the Elil Kingdom until the blockade was lifted and Vio Georg returned to his domain.

And immediately, condemnation rained down on the Georg family. Accusations flew that Vio Georg, driven by arrogance and madness as the Guardian of the Holy Land, had committed these atrocities.

Indeed, these rumors were spread by the Aldeon family, and other houses and territories with grievances similar to those of Saltain also supported these claims. Envy and jealousy were also mixed in.

Vio Georg was later found dead, starved atop a seaside cliff. After a long period of wandering and asceticism, his eldest daughter, Lianne Georg, was endorsed by the clan to take over the domain.

“At last, the former king drew his sword. ‘The Georg family no longer deserves to be the Guardians of the Holy Land; now the king of Elil will also be its guardian,’” he declared.

But Lianne refused.

Instead, she gathered loyal knights, supportive friends, and new allies to declare war on Aldeon. Meanwhile, the Count of Saltain, spitting blood, proclaimed independence from the Elil Kingdom, and the witch sisters of Hectali began to stir, foreseeing the kingdom’s fragmentation.

“The very division the former king had sought to avoid came about in an even more dreadful form. At least four factions, potentially more if you look deeper. This country is now nothing more than a patchwork held together by the so-called faith of Elil.”

***

An awful civil war erupted in the Elil Kingdom, but it subsided into a lull four years ago when the tyrant King Alfred Aldeon died from hypertension.

Edelred’s coronation brought some semblance of peace to the kingdom, though it was considered unstable due to his perceived weakness compared to his father. However, Isaac knew this was not weakness but a distaste for the system that was leading Elil to ruin.

Edelred turned to Isaac with moist eyes and muttered,

“Do you understand now what I wanted to say? Today, you’ve done something great. You’ve done what the country couldn’t, and you’ve signaled the coming changes. Just as I dreamed.”

“Your Majesty.”

“You are finally the hope I found. The knights might respect you more than me, but it doesn’t matter if you are the one to bring change to this country. But if you leave me, I don’t know what I’ll do with this torn country.”

Edelred wanted to change the system that had been meticulously crafted by followers of Elil over centuries, a daunting task, especially amidst the aggressive blades surrounding him.

Being simply the king would be easy if it meant becoming the strongest in the country.

But Edelred wanted to destroy the system itself.

A much harder path.

Isaac sensed the irony in this. It was like seeing a kindred spirit.

Edelred was essentially a one-eyed man thrown into a world of the blind. The dissonance Isaac felt as a modern person dropped into another world was not much different from what Edelred experienced.

However, Isaac could only offer him a sorrowful response.

“Become the king of the knights, Your Majesty.”

To destroy what you hate, you must become what you hate.

That was what Isaac had learned while contending with this irrational world.

–TL Notes–

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